Free Downloads

Purchase

Related Resources

Velvet Steel

The Joy of Being Married to You

“My prayer is that these small tastes of my imperfect affections will fan affections into flame—for God, for your spouse, and, in every fitting way, for all the treasured people in your life” (p. 14).

Beyond the tough love of covenant-keeping is a warmth and tenderness that can't be denied. So while John Piper's This Momentary Marriage focuses on the theological meaning of marriage, its companion volume, Velvet Steel, reveals the rich, emotional dimension.

Within these pages Piper shares a series of poems written for his wife, Noël, during the first forty-two years of their relationship, starting from the day of their engagement. In it he provides readers with a taste of one man's tender affections for his wife-poems that he hopes will fan into flame readers' affections for their own spouses and ultimately for the Maker of marriage.

First Edition 2009
Crossway Books (Wheaton, Illinois)

“Though I do not read poetry as often as I ought and though I am not very skilled at reading and understanding it, I greatly enjoyed this little volume. I read through it on my own and then returned to some of the selections later with my wife. Piper is a gifted poet and in this little book he communicates not only what he could not communicate because of the theme of the first book, but also because of the genre. There are some things that only poetry can communicate; great affections often turn from prose to poetry and for good reason. Here Piper shares his affections in a wonderful collection of little poems. It is a perfect companion to This Momentary Marriage.”
—Tim Challies, author and blogger